Sassy!
So here’s the story. Last Saturday I went to the doctor to get my yearly blood work done and have some prescriptions renewed. I also had a question about the annoying leg cramps I’ve been having for ages now. What I came away with was a potassium deficiency and he was unhappy with my blood pressure. Oh goodie. So more bananas for me and new diet as well. Again, oh goodie.
It seems I am fated to go down the path of my father. We are a lot alike in many ways, one of those being we like food. Neither of us eat to fill a void or as a comfort when life is rough. We like food, it tastes good. Dad comes from a family of “hearty eaters” and I’m not an exception to that. When Dad was around 44 he had bypass surgery and from then on there was a big change in his diet. Low fat, low salt. He took it in stride, mostly because my mom does the cooking and he eats what she gives him. There were still outings for ice cream on occasion, but those became very infrequent when he was diagnosed as diabetic. So he’s lost a lot of weight from the big man I remember as a child, and is in general good health for someone in their 70s.
That said, I’m now on a “Mediterranean diet”: Nuts, olive oil, low fat, low salt, more calcium…wheee! I miss the salt, but otherwise it’s not so bad. My doc recommended “The Flat Belly Diet” because the advice is good and the recipes have gone over well with other patients. So I picked up the book, put out by Prevention Magazine, went shopping and Monday started the new food vocabulary. As I said, I’m my father’s daughter so if he can do it so can I, without the bypass and diabetes.
The book encourages you to journal, so I thought I’d do it here. If this diet works out then I can encourage others, if not, well you’ll know that too!
So it wants you to start with an anti-bloat jumpstart for 4 days, but this week was not good for that (3 company lunches) so instead I followed the guide for the regular weeks and will start the anti-bloat part tomorrow (happily coinciding with the start of my period, so I could use the less bloaty-ness). The idea is you have four 400 calorie meals a day, each having some mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) in them which are good for your heart. These MUFAs are things like olive oil, nuts and (whoo hoo) dark chocolate. The four meals should be spread through the day so you don’t go more than 4 hours without eating. This is working great for me because that 4:30 snack gives me the energy I need for the gym, and we usually don’t eat dinner until 8 or so during the week.
And then there is the Sassy Water. The nutritionist for this book’s last name is Sass, so that’s where the name comes from. Take 2 liters of water and add 1 sliced lemon, 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger (I’ve decided this is the best smell ever!), 1 peeled and thinly sliced cucumber and 12 mint leaves. Leave in the fridge over night then drink the next day. It smells great and tastes better than plain water, which is good, because you need to drink 2 liters of it a day!
Stay tuned for the week’s munching.
It seems I am fated to go down the path of my father. We are a lot alike in many ways, one of those being we like food. Neither of us eat to fill a void or as a comfort when life is rough. We like food, it tastes good. Dad comes from a family of “hearty eaters” and I’m not an exception to that. When Dad was around 44 he had bypass surgery and from then on there was a big change in his diet. Low fat, low salt. He took it in stride, mostly because my mom does the cooking and he eats what she gives him. There were still outings for ice cream on occasion, but those became very infrequent when he was diagnosed as diabetic. So he’s lost a lot of weight from the big man I remember as a child, and is in general good health for someone in their 70s.
That said, I’m now on a “Mediterranean diet”: Nuts, olive oil, low fat, low salt, more calcium…wheee! I miss the salt, but otherwise it’s not so bad. My doc recommended “The Flat Belly Diet” because the advice is good and the recipes have gone over well with other patients. So I picked up the book, put out by Prevention Magazine, went shopping and Monday started the new food vocabulary. As I said, I’m my father’s daughter so if he can do it so can I, without the bypass and diabetes.
The book encourages you to journal, so I thought I’d do it here. If this diet works out then I can encourage others, if not, well you’ll know that too!
So it wants you to start with an anti-bloat jumpstart for 4 days, but this week was not good for that (3 company lunches) so instead I followed the guide for the regular weeks and will start the anti-bloat part tomorrow (happily coinciding with the start of my period, so I could use the less bloaty-ness). The idea is you have four 400 calorie meals a day, each having some mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) in them which are good for your heart. These MUFAs are things like olive oil, nuts and (whoo hoo) dark chocolate. The four meals should be spread through the day so you don’t go more than 4 hours without eating. This is working great for me because that 4:30 snack gives me the energy I need for the gym, and we usually don’t eat dinner until 8 or so during the week.
And then there is the Sassy Water. The nutritionist for this book’s last name is Sass, so that’s where the name comes from. Take 2 liters of water and add 1 sliced lemon, 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger (I’ve decided this is the best smell ever!), 1 peeled and thinly sliced cucumber and 12 mint leaves. Leave in the fridge over night then drink the next day. It smells great and tastes better than plain water, which is good, because you need to drink 2 liters of it a day!
Stay tuned for the week’s munching.
Labels: Diet
posted by Liz @ 10:04 AM
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